to make the payment? why was the distraction so important, beside you not wanting your wife to know. >> what his concern was there would be a check that it would have his distinct signature and after you cash a check all you have to do is make a photo copy and proof positive on exactly what took place so here the goal was to keep him far away from it as possible. >> can anyone corroborate what you have shared with us? >> absolutely. >> and that is? >> keith davidson, allen weisselberg, president trump. >> now, let's talk about the reimbursement, according to federal prosecutors, and i quote, after the election, cohen sought reimbursement for election-related expense, including the 130,000 dollars payment. prosecutors stated that you, and i quote, presented an executive of the company, with a copy of a bank statement reflecting the $130,000 wire transfer. is that accurate? >> that is accurate.

>> do you still have a copy of that bank statement? >> yes, it's actually made part of the exhibit. >> so you will provide it to the committee? >> yes, ma'am. >> according to federal prosecutors, executives at the company then, and i quote, agreed to reimburse cohen by adding $130,000 and 50,000 grossing up that amount tore 360,000 for tax purposes, and adding a 60,000 dollars bonus such that cohen would be paid $420,000 in total. executives of the company decided to pay the 420,000 in monthly installments of 35,000 over the course of a year. is that accurate? >> that is accurate. >> what was the purpose of grossing up the amounts of essentially doubling what you had paid to ms. clifford and others? >> because if you pay 130,000 dollars, and you live in new york, we have a 50% tax bracket, and in order to get your 130 back, you have to have 260, otherwise if he gave me back 130, i would only then, i would be out 65,000.

>> what was the purpose of spreading the reimbursements to you over the 12 monthly installments? >> that was in order to hide what the payment was. i obviously wanted the money in one shot, i would have preferred it that way, but in order to be able to put it on to the books, allen weisselberg made the decision that it should be paid over the 12 months so that it would look like a retainer. >> and did mr. trump knew about this reimbursement method? >> he knew about everything, yes. >> thank you mr. cohen. so the president not only knew about the payments, he knew and helped to hide the payments and the reimbursements to you? >> we discussed it. everything had to go through mr. trump and it had to be approved by mr. trump. >> and now, you're going to prison -- >> and i'm going to prison, yes, ma'am. >> i yield back. >> if i may. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> yes, i yield my time.

>> earlier, you had said, i'm assuming new york's one party consent state, one person can record the other one without it being illegal. >> correct. >> but you also were a member of the new york bar? >> i was, yes. >> how would you rate recording clients in the ethical realm of being a lawyer? >> i would say it's not illegal, and -- >> i'm not asking if it is illegal. i'm asking if it is ethical. >> i don't know. we would have to leave that to the judgment of the bar association. >> i think every other lawyer in here knows where it is in the ethical standard. when you said there were 100 tapes, were any of those tapes of other clients? >> yes. >> and i think this is pretty amazing. i really do. did any of them waive privilege? >> no. >> so five minutes ago, in the middle of our hearing on oversight, you just immediately responded that you would hand over tapes, to this committee, without any of your previous clients waiving privilege? >> i'm not the only one in possession of those documents.

those documents were in the mands of all of the -- >> whoever else is in charge of those documents is not my concern. my concern is i know lawyers that would go to jail, before they would violate attorney-client privilege and in a matter of a second, you just said absolutely, i will turn those over. >> just trying to cooperate, sir. >> at the expense of clients who have never waved privilege. >> they are already in the hands sir of all of the agencies, as i didn't ask people to -- >> what law enforcement determines to do something and what you determine to do is something, and the clients privilege and attorney trust accounts are about the two most sacred things you can ever do in your entire career as a lawyer and in a matter of a second, and the mr. trump -- >> the reason it is out there is because rudy giuliani waived the privilege. >> i'm not talking about rudy giuliani. i'm talking about you. i don't know who is on those tapes. only you know is on the tapes. there is 100 of them. >> the other one is subject to ongoing -- >> my point is in a matter of a second, one second, you took no,

absolutely no calculation of your role, as those clients counselor, the role that plays, in privacy, and in the role that plays in the passing of the bar, when you signed on the bar and until recently were a member of the bar and you immediately said, if it helps me out in two days in front of tv, yes, absolutely, mr. chairman, you can have them. and i think, and that just goes into what we're going to talk about next briefly. we talk about these tax, these indictments on tax fraud, and bank fraud, as if they are isolated incidents. but they're not isolated incidents of bad judgment. these were intricate elaborate lies that created, that needed to be held with constant, i mean just constant deceptions of banks, businesses, associates, accountants, potentially your family. you received over 2.4 million in personal loans from taxi company, taxi medallion company one and those were loan payment

force a business loan, correct? >> no, sir. >> you weren't receiving -- go ahead. >> those were payments that were made by the management company that was operating the medallions. >> to you? >> to me. >> and those were deposited into your personal account, or in some instances your wife's account? >> it was deposited into the joint checking account of my wife and i, that's located at the base of the building that we reside in. >> and were those disclosed on your tax returns? >> they are not, they were not disclosed on my tax returns. >> and in fact, when your accountant talked to you about those, those deposit, you told him you wouldn't pay for a memo that you didn't ask to be done? >> that's inaccurate. >> that's inaccurate. >> so the sentencing court in new york has it wrong? >> i don't know what mr. getzel wrote, my accountant, there are a series of issues regarding his

memo anyway, including the fact he's almost directing me in an earlier memo to commit fraud. but putting all that aside, with jeff getzel the answer to that is i pled guilty, all right? and i made my mistake. and i'm going, as i've said 100 times now, i'm not so sure why the singular attack on my taxes, if you want to look at them, i'm more than happy to show them to you. but every single -- >> if you have 20 minutes, i have plenty of other things to talk about. >> i will reclaim my time. >> it is not 100% anything, and that's exactly when it comes to the credibility, why i ask mr. davis, mr. monaco, to please, let's figure out how to -- >> that's my point with the credibility. so that you understand, these are not isolated incidents of attack. these were constant deceptions, whether it is rolling over a $20 million line of credit to a $14 million credit, you went through great lengths to conceal that from one bank, while at the same time, you are reducing your net

income to another bank. these are things that happened on january 1, of 18, january 1 of 17, january 1 of 15, these were things that were constantly involved. and my question was, was it ex haufrting keeping track of all of the -- exhausting keeping track of all of the lies you were telling people? >> the gentleman's time is up. >> i don't have an answer for the gentleman's question. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. cohen, good luck on your road to redemption. >> thank you. it is going to be a long way. >> and the opposite of that is perdition, i remember and that is particularly well on your children and i wish you well and i wish your family well. mr. cohen, as you described your road to here, mr. cooper asked you when is the moment you decided you needed a change, it strikes me there is a transition you have illuminated here. the period of time, ten years, working for somebody you admired as a developer and when charlottesville happened and

quite frankly when the special counsel called you in, obviously, was a key part of it, or you wouldn't be here. but the in between part i find really interesting and troubling. at least in terms of appearances. and confidence that the american people would have in this institution, and democracy, quite frankly. so during that period of time, i wanted to ask you about two specific, if we have enough time, first, the trump tower, so you were negotiating for this, as you said, it was to be the tallest building in europe, and in your guilty plea with the special counsel, you quote, say, it quote, cohen asked individual one, is that president trump? >> yes. >> about the possibility of president trump traveling to russia in connection with the moscow project and asked a senior campaign official about potential business travel to russia. when did this conversation happen, do you recall? >> early on in the campaign. >> and who was the campaign official? >> corey lewandowski.

>> what did you discuss in this meeting? >> the possibility of which dates that mr. trump would have availability, if in fact, that we were going to go over to russia, to take a look at the project. unfortunately, it never came to fruition because we were never successful in getting the first prong of what i needed, which was ownership or control over a piece of property, and until such time, there was no reason to come up with a date, but when i first received the information request to go to russia, what i decided to do is i spoke to mr. trump about it, he told me to speak to corey and see what dates might be available, if i got the information i needed. >> so it stopped because of appearances or did it stop because the parties decided not to pursue it? >> i'm so sorry, i don't

understand your question. >> why did the pursuit of the trump tower that mr. trump has said of course he pursued it because he thought he might be going back into the development business, why was the reason that the deal stopped? >> because he won the presidency. >> so in that interim period of time, you must admit it looks troubling that now that we know what foreign influence was attempting to do, whether there was collusion or not, it certainly appears troubling that you, mr. trump was part of this negotiation, and at the same time, what we know, perhaps separately, that the russians were engaged in our election. >> well, i don't know about them being engaged in the election. i can only talk for myself. here i would say to mr. trump, in response to his question, what's going on with russia, is i'm still waiting for documents, and then that night at a rally, we turn around and do his battle cry of no russia, no collusion, no involvement, witch hunt. >> okay, on a separate subject, but somewhat related, on january 17 of this year, "the wall street journal" published a

story stating that you hired john gager, the owner of a consulting company who works for liberty university in virginia to rig at least two online polls related to donald trump. did you hire him? >> those were back in i believe 2015. >> 2014. >> 2014. >> 2014. so you did hire him? >> yes i spoke to mr. garger about manipulating these online polls. >> and did he use bots to manipulate the poll? >> he used algorithms and if that includes bots, then the answer is yes. >> yes, that's correct. >> did the president have any involvement? >> yes. >> in directing you to do this? >> yes. >> what were the results of the poll? >> exactly where we wanted them to be the at the cnbc poll, we came in at number nine. and the drudge report, he was top of the drudge report as well. the poll. >> and the cbs poll was called

the contenders and the top 250 people that they named, and it was supposed to be the top ten most influential people. >> let me finish, earlier today, you directed a comment to my colleagues, and i'm quoting, so correct me if i got this wrong, you said the more people who follow mr. trump, the more people who will be where i am. is it your expectation that people in the administration will end up where you are? >> sadly, if they follow blindly like i have, i think the answer is yes. >> thank you. >> time is expired. >> thank you, mr. chairman. when i ran for congress, i talked about how washington was broken. but i certainly did not expect the level of political gamemanship, partisanship and shear stagnation of policies that improve the lives of americans that i'm witnessing today. it is questioning an individual that has zero probative value and zero credibility instead of spending our limited time focusing on improving the lives

of americans, creating jobs, or streamlining the functioning of our federal government. yet here we are, taking testimony from a convicted liar, and not someone who has just lied to his clients or family and friends but testimony from an individual who deliberately and premeditate ively lied to this body, congress through written statements and through his testimony and amp fighted his false statements by releasing and repeating his lies to the public including the other potential witnesses. yet now, we now on this committee and the american people are expected to believe mr. cohen's testimony. i don't know a juror in america that would believe anything mr. cohen says given his past actions and lies. mr. cohen, you stood before multiple congressional committees before today, and raised your right hand and swore an oath to be honest, is that correct? >> that is correct. >> and you lied to those congressional committees, is that correct? >> previously. >> correct. >> yes. >> you stated that trump never directed to you lie to congress,

is that correct? >> that's correct. >> therefore you lied to congress on your own accord and then admitted to lying to congress, correct? >> i have already stated my piece on that. i knew what he wanted me to do. i was staying on party line. >> but he never directed you to lie to congress? >> he did not use those word, no. >> in your evidence that you provided this committee a mere two hours before the hearing started, were payments made to you by mr. trump, correct? >> amongst other things, yes. >> yet other than your testimony here today, there's absolutely no proof that those specific payments were for those specific purposes, is that correct? >> it's my testimony that the check that i produced, as part of this testimony, the 35,000, and then the second check, that's signed by allen weisselberg, and don trump jr., were two checks out of the 11 that were meant for the reimbursement of the hush money payment to stormy daniels. >> so in your testimony, on page

13, you claim, and i quote, mr. trump direct theed me to use my own personal 23u7b8ds from a home equity line of rit to avoid any money being tracked to him that could negatively impact his campaign. do you have any proof of this direction? >> just the payment sir. >> so no e-mail? >> mr. trump doesn't have e-mail. >> so no recording? >> i do not have recordings, no. >> no text message? >> mr. trump doesn't text message. >> so no direction other than your testimony today that that's what the payment was for? >> and the fact that i paid on his behalf, at his direction, the money to keith davidson's iola account, you're right, there is no other documentation i have. >> so nothing that you produce as part of your exhibits prove that president trump direct the you in any way to make that payment? >>. >> i don't even know how to answer that, sir. >> well, it's pretty simple.

>> there is nothing in the evidence that shows of the exhibits that you provided today, that show that trump directed you to make those payments. >> other than the nondisclosure agreement that has been seized by government authorities, and is widely shown, i don't believe there is anybody out there that believes that i just decided to pay $130,000 on his behalf. >> you were his attorney for over ten years. >> that doesn't mean that i would pay 130,000 dollars -- >> it also he wasn't paying you for representation of counsel. >> so how did president trump even know you had a heloc? >> i'm so sorry, sir. >> how did president trump even know you had a heloc? >> because we discussed it. because i told him the same thing that i didn't want my wife to find out about it. and as one additional, rudy giuliani himself came out, and expressed that mr. trump reimbursed me for the money that was spent to pay stormy daniels.

>> and did you tell chris cuomo that you had no access to mr. trump during october and november of 2016? >> i'm sorry, i don't know what you're referring to. >> your interview with chris cuomo. >> i would need to see the document. >> did you also tell chris cuomo that you made these payments woul telling mr. trump because you wanted to protect mr. trump. >> and i was protecting mr. trump. >> and you told him you made these payments without telling him. >> if that's what i said to chris cuomo, yes, that was my line. >> and if this unsupported claim was true, then it would be part of an ongoing investigation as evidence of a crime, and the department of justice would not let you discuss it during your testimony here today, is that correct? >> i don't know. >> time is expired. answer. >> yes,i did want to say one last thing. not only did i lie to the american people, i lied to the first lady. when the president called me and i was sitting in a car with a friend of mine, and he had me speak to her, and explain to the

first lady, so the answer is you're not, you're not accurate, and i don't feel good about any of this, and this was not my intention. >> ms. lawrence. >> their, mr. chairman. i just want to put on the record, as being a black american, and having endured the public comments of racism from the sitting president, as being a black person, i can only imagine what's being said in private. and to prop up one member of our entire race, of black people, and say that that nullifies that, is totally insulting, and in this environment, of expecting a president to be inclusive, and to look at his administration, speaks volumes. so i have some questions. i want to talk to you about this intimidation of witness.

mr. cohen you were initially scheduled to testify before the house oversight committee on february 7 but your legal team delayed your testimony, quoting, ongoing threats against your family, from the president, and attorney giuliani. is that correct? >> yes, ma'am. >> and then on november 29, after you admitted that the president's negotiations over a real estate project, in russia, continue well through the summer, before the 2016 election, president trump called you, quote, a weak person, and accused you of lying, and then on december 16, 2018, after you disclosed that it was the president who directed you to arrange hush money payments to stormy daniels, and karen mcdougal, to conceal his extra marital affairs he called you, the president of the united states, a rat. mr. cohen, why do you believe or

feel that the president is repeatedly attacking you, you are stating you feel intimidated asking us to protect you following your cooperation with law enforcement. >> when you have access of 60 million people who follow you on soernd, and you have the ability, within which to spark some action by individuals that follow, that follow him, and for his own words that he can walk down fifth avenue, shoot someone, and get away with it, it's never comfortable when the president of the united states -- >> what do you think he can do to you? >> a lot. and it's not just him. it's those people that follow him and his rhetoric. >> what is a lot? >> i don't know. i don't walk with my wife, and go to a restaurant, or go somewhere, i don't walk with my children, i make them go before me, because i have fear. and it's the same fear that i had before, when he initially

decided to drop that tweet, in my cell phone, i received some, and i'm sure you'll understand, i received some tweets, i received some facebook messenger, all sorts of social media attacks upon me, whether it's a private direct message that i had to turn over to secret service, because they are the most vial, disgusting statements that anyone could ever receive, and when it starts to affect your children, that's when it really affects you. >> on january 20th, 2019, mr. giuliani called your father-in-law, quote, a criminal, and said that he may have ties to organized crime. mr. cohen, do you believe that the president and mr. giuliani publicly targeted your father-in-law as an effort to intimidate you? can you elaborate, why is your father-in-law being pulled into

this? >> i don't know the answer to that. my father-in-law was in the clothing business. came to this country because they were in 1972, 73, the expulsion of jews from the ukraine, came here to this country, worked hard and he is now enjoying his retirement. never in my life did i think that mr. trump would do something so disgraceful, and he's attacking him because he knows i care about my family, and to hurt me, he is trying to hurt them. interestingly enough, my faernlt's father-in-law's biggest investment happen to be in a trump property, so it doesn't make any sense to me. >> i warrant to be clear, any effort, i want to be clear any efforts to prevent a witness from testifying in front of congress is against the law. i want to be real clear about that, and as the chairman has said, retaliating against witness, and threatening their families, and members, is a textbook mob tactic, that does

not benefit the president of the united states or this country and i want to be on the record, this hearing is not about discrediting the president, it's about the oval office that we take as members of congress, to have checks and balances, and to meet the laws and the policies of this country, to serve. thank you, and i yield back. >> mr. roy. >> mr. cohen, i too want to offer my hart faelt thoughts for your family and what they're going through. i know it is tough and for your time here today. i know it is tough for you to stand here in front of this committee. the chairman suggested you volunteered to come here. you testified that you were asked to come here. is that correct you were asked to come here, yes or no. >> yes. >> the combined total of crimes which you were sentenced would bring a mack mum 70 years, yes or no. >> yes. >> and you are going to prison for three years yes or no. >> yes. >> the prosecutors of the southern district of new york say the loans falsely under

estimated the amount of debt that he had and a bank lended on incomplete information. and not parsing different statute, are you or are you not guilty of making false statements to a financial institution, yes or no? >> yes, i pled guilty. >> you said clearly to mr. cloud and mr. jordan that the southern district of new york lawyerers were being untruthful in characterizing your zidesire to work in the administration. do you say the lawyers are being untruthful in making that characterization, yes or no? >> i am saying that is not inaccurate. >> you're saying they're being untruthful. >> i'm saying that is not truthful. i did not want a title or role in the administration. >> i'm sure the lawyers of the sdny appreciate that distinction. you testified you have never been to prague or the czech republic. do you stand behind that statement? >> yes. >> i have an article in mother jones by david corn in which he says he rue viewed his notes from mr. cohen, that he says i

haven't been to prague 14 years ago, ways in prague one afternoon 14 years ago. you offered to the committee taped information regarding clients without the bat of an eye. >> you said it so fat. >> you as my friend mr. armstrong, offered to this committee, offered taped information without the bat of an eye. do you stand behind that offer? >> if the chairman asks me, i will take it under advisement and it's not a problem in terms of attorney client privilege, yes, i will turn it over. >> you have misled this committee in a written submission that contradicted your attorney. you suggested you are going to review it. are you going to review it in the next break to correct the record? >> yes. >> you helped out the president's campaign or were involved in the campaign as a representative, as a spokesman, in your words today, it was your idea for the campaign dating back to 2011, is that correct, yes or no. >> yes. >> 2011 is the year that sticks in my head. the year my daughter was born and the year i was zyged with

cancer. i was not pushing for donald trump to be president. i was fighting cancer. even in 2016 i was publicly backing a certain republican from texas. you might guess who it was. but you, you were all in. you either wanted donald trump to be your president because it would be good for the country or you did it for your own personal advancement or both. sort of the two options. real americans in my district and across the country wanted the president to be president, not in any way because he's perfect, but rather, because they are sick and tired of this hell hole. they supported the president because they are sick and tired of the games that we are seeing here today. they are sick and tired of politicians who refuse to secure the border. balance our budget. restore health care freedom and get the hell out of their way so they can lead their life. they are mystified that we amass about $100 million in debt per hour which means we have blown through $300, 400, $450 million during this charade. in amassing debt.

$450 million. sick and tired of a democrat party that has cartel asylum crisis on our border that endangers american citizens. in eagle pass texas yesterday, an ms-13 gang member was arrested. and mccallen texas, an award was offered for a man involved in an mexican cartel and home invasions in south texas. a mass hunter and migrant rush at the texas border, forced prefer closure of the laredo port. this is this week. this is what we're ignoring. this is not what we're doing for the american people. while we engage in this charade. this is not what the american people sent us here to do. this is an embarrassment for our country. i talked to my beautiful wife back in texas just before the hearing, i said don't bother, i said don't bother watching. she said, as i roughly expected, don't worry, i won't. i have more important things to do. and she, like the rest of the

american people, have a hell of a lot more important things to do than watch this. i said amen, darling. i can't help bust think that's what the, help but think that's what the majority of the american people are thinking while watching this unbelievable circus. i yield back. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i've got a lot to do as well. i've got houses and schools to help rebuild in the virgin islands. expansion of voting rights. educational opportunities. criminal justice reform. thank god the democratic majority can walk and chew gum at the same time. so we're here with you right now. mr. cohen, you learned well, in the ten years that you worked with donald trump, what was your position with the gop in the up to eight months ago? >> i was vice chair of the rnc finance committee. >> you were vice chair of the

finance of the republican national committee, right? >> correct. i do want to say i was a democrat until steve wynn found out i was a democrat and made me switch parties and said it wasn't right for democrat to be the vice chair. >> good. let's get to it. i only have a little bit of time. on behalf of the many members here who have expressed to your family our apologies to your family, but i want to apologize for the inappropriate comments and tweets that have been made by other members of this body, and as a former prosecutor, and as former counsel, on house ethics, i think that at the very least there should be a referral to the ethics committee of witness intimidation, tampering, under usc 15 is, of my colleague matt gates, and it may be possibly him being referred for criminal prosecution. so i want to put that on the record. on may 2, 2018, the president's personal attorney, rudy giuliani, who was his personal

attorney like you ap appeared on fox news and referred to the president's reimbursement to you for the 130,000 payment for stephanie clifford as part of a retainer and on may 3, 2018, one day after mr. giuliani's appearance, the president tweet and i quote, mr. cohen, an attorney, referred a monthly retainer not from the campaign, and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into, through reimbursement, a private contract, between two parties, known as a nondisclosure agreement, or nda. the office of government ethics, which is the agency which the federal government with the responsibility over what the president needs to report publicly, about his assets, was puzzled by this, it seems and they were skeptical that a retainer was actually in place and asked to see the retainer agreement on call, of may 8 with the president. the president's personal counsel sherry dillon replied that she would and i quote not permit oge staff to read the agreement because of privilege.

ms. dillon want allow staff to come to her office to review the retainer agreement. mr. coen in a court filing made in august of last year, federal prosecutors state the in quote, in truth and in fact, there was no such retainer agreement. mr. cohen, did you ever have a retainer agreement in place with the president for the payment to ms. clifford? >> no. >> so was mr. giuliani's statement inaccurate? >> yes. >> was ms. dillon's statement about the retainer agreement inaccurate. >> statement -- >> is it inaccurate? >> her statement is what? >> her statement was quote, not to permit oge staff to read the agreement because it was privileged. >> there was no agreement. >> and is the president's tweet or his statement accurate? >> i'm sorry, one more time. >> his tainment, mr. cohen, an attorney referred a monthly retainer, not from the campaign and having nothing to do with the campaign, from which he entered into through a reimbursement. >> that's not accurate. >> you mentioned some individuals to my colleague from new york, ms. conley, and also

in your testimony, about mr. wisenberg and other individuals, ms. rona, who are those individuals? are they with the trump organization. >> they are. >> are there other people we should be meeting with? >> allen weisselberg is the chief financial officer. >> you got to quickly give us as many names as you can so we can get to them. >> yes, ma'am. >> is ms. rona, what is -- >> rona graph is the, mr. trump's executive assistant. >> and would she be able to corroborate many of statements you made here? >> her office was directly next to his and she's involved in a lot that went on. >> and mr. cohen, when the president's lawyers were having the discussions with the office of government ethics in 2018, did they reach out to you to talk with you about these payments? >> no, ma'am. >> >> and did you share with them otherwise in any other conversation? >> i do not recall, no. >> can the committee obtain more information about these facts by obtaining testimony, documents,

from the white house, the trump organization, and the president's attorneys? >> i believe so. >> mr. chair, i think that those are the individuals that we should be speaking with. and i yield back at this time. >> the committee will now stand in recess, again, we will come back, listen up, 35 minutes. 35 minutes, after the last vote begins. so for mr. cohen, mr. cohen, we're talking about probably about an hour or so.

the house oversight and reform committee taking a break here. it will probably be an hour or so. there is a series of votes on the house floor, a series of four votes, and you can follow that over on c-span, we will resume with live coverage when the committee gavels back in, which again should be about an hour or so. they've been in session for four and a half hours, michael cohen testifying, on the 2016 campaign, and his relationship with president donald trump. it's the second of three hearings this week with michael cohen, as our capitol hill

producer craig caplan points out, he has testified yesterday, in front of the senate intelligence committee, behind closed doors, and tomorrow, behind closed door, before the house intelligence committee, on the russia investigation. again, we will be back with live coverage once the committee gavels back in, and until then, we will show you the opening this morning of the questions, the q&a, the questions and responses starting with the chairman, congressman cummings. if you would please rise and i will begin to swear you in. raise your right hand. do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god? let the record show that the witness answered in the affirmative. and thank you, and you may be seated. the microphones are sensitive,

so please speak directly into them. without objection, your written statement will be made a part of the record. with that, mr. cohen, you are now recognized to give an oral presentation of your testimony. is your mike on? >> yes. chairman cummings, ranking member jordan, and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me here today. i have asked this committee to ensure that my family be protected from presidential threats, and that the committee be sensitive to the questions pertaining to ongoing investigations. i thank you for your help and for your understanding. i am here under oath to correct the record, to answer the committee's questions truthfully, and to offer the american people what i know

about president trump. i recognize that some of you may doubt and attack me on my credibility. it is for this reason that i have incorporated into this opening statement, documents that are irrefutable, and demonstrate that the information you will hear is accurate and truthful. never in a million years did i imagine when i accepted a job in 2007, to work for donald trump, that he would one day run for the presidency. to launch a campaign on a platform of hate and intolerance. and actively win. i regret the day i said yes to mr. trump. i regret all of the help and support i gave him along the way. i am ashamed of my own failings and publicly accepted responsibility for them by

pleading guilty in the southern district of new york. i am ashamed of my weakness and my misplaced loyalty, of the things i did for mr. trump, in an effort to protect and promote him. i am ashamed that i chose to take part in concealing mr. trump's illicit acts rather than listening to my own conscience. i am ashamed because i know what mr. trump is. he is a racist. he is a con man. and he is a cheat. he was a presidential candidate who knew that roger stone was talking with julian assange about a wikileaks drop on democratic national committee e-mails. i will explain each in a few moments. i am providing the committee today with several documents.

and these include a copy of the check mr. trump wrote from his personal bank account, after he became president, to reimburse me for the hush money payments i made to cover up his affair with an adult film store and to prevent damage to his campaign. copies of financial statements from 2011, 2012, and 2013, that he gave to such institutions such as deutsche bank, a copy of an article with mr. trump's handwriting on it, that reported on the auction of a portrait of himself, that he arranged for the bidder ahead of time, and then reimbursed the bidder from the account of his nonprofit charitable foundation, with the picture now hanging in one of his country clubs. and koirps of letters, copies of

letters i wrote at mr. trump's direction, that threatened his high school, colleges, and the college board, not to release his grades or s.a.t. scores. i hope my appearance here today, my guilty plea, and my work with law enforcement agencies, are steps along a path of redemption that will restore faith in me and help this country understand our president better. and before going further, i want to apologize to each member, to the u.s. congress as a whole. the last time i appeared before congress, i came to protect mr. trump. today, i am here to tell the truth about mr. trump. i lied to congress when mr. trump stopped negotiating the moscow tower project in russia. i stated that we stopped negotiating in january of 2016.

that was false. our negotiations continued for months later during the campaign. mr. trump did not directly tell me to lie to congress. that's not how he operates. in conversations we had during the campaign, at the same time i was actively negotiating in russia for him, he would look me in the eye, and tell me, there's no russian business, and then go on to lie to the american people, by saying the same thing. in his way, he was telling me to lie. there were at least a half a dozen times between the iowa caucus in january of 2016 and the end of june, when he would ask me, how's it going in russia? referring to the moscow tower project.

you need to know that mr. trump's personal lawyers reviewed and edited my statement to congress about the timing of the moscow tower negotiations before i pave i, gave it. to be clear, mr. trump new of and directed the moscow negotiations throughout the campaign and lied about it. he lied about it because he never expected to win. he also lied about it, because he stood to make hundreds of millions of dollars on the moscow real estate project. and so i lied about it, too. because mr. trump had made clear to me through his personal statements to me, that we both new to be false, and through his lies to the country, that he wanted me to lie. and he made it clear to me, because his personal attorneys reviewed my statement, before i pave it, gave it to congress.

over the last two years, i have been smeared as a rat by the president of the united states. the truth is much different. and let me take a brief moment to introduce myself. my name is michael dean cohen. and i am a blessed husband of 24 years, and a father to an incredible daughter and son. when i married my wife, i promised her that i would love her, i would cherish her, and i would protect her. as my father said, countless times throughout my childhood, you, my wife, and you my children, are the air that i breathe. so to my laura and to my sammy and to my jake, there's nothing i wouldn't do to protect you. i have always tried to live a life of loyalty, friendship, generosity, and compassion.

it's qualities my parents ingrained in my siblings and me since childhood. my father survived the holocaust. thanks to the compassion and selfless acts of others. he was helped by many who put themselves in harm's way to do what they knew was right and that is why my first in tint has always been to help those in need, and mom and dad, i am sorry i let you down. as the many people that know me best would say, i am the person that they call at 3:00 a.m. if they needed help. and i proudly require remember being the emergency contact for many of my children's friends when they were growing up because their parents knew that i would drop everything and care for them as if they were my own. yet last fall, i pled guilty in

federal court to felonies for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in coordination with individual number one. and for the record, individual number one is president donald j. trump. it is painful to admit that i was motivated by ambition at times. it is even more painful to admit that many times i ignored my conscience and acted loyal to a man when i should not have. sitting here today, it seems unbelievableable that i was so mesmerized by donald trump that i was willing to do things for him that i knew were absolutely wrong. for that reason, i have come here to apologize to my family, to my government, and to the american people.

accordingly, let me now tell you about mr. trump. i got to know him very well, working very closely with him for more than ten years. as his executive vice president, and special counsel. and then as personal attorney when he became president. when i first met mr. trump, he was a successful entrepreneur. a real estate giant. and an icon. being around mr. trump was intoxicating, when you were in his presence, you felt like you were involved in something greater than yourself, that you were somehow changing the world. i wound up touting the trump narrative for over a decade. that was my job. always stay on message. always defend. it monopolized my life. at first, i worked mostly on real estate developments. and other business transactions.

shortly thereafter, mr. trump brought me into his personal life and private dealings. over time, i saw his true character character revealed. mr. trump is an enigma, he is complicated, as am i. he is both good and bad, as do we all. but the bad far outweighs the good and since taking office he has become the worst version of himself. he is capable of behaving kindly, but he's not kind. he is capable of committing acts of generosity, but he is not generous. he is capable of being loyal, but he is fundamentally disloyal. donald trump is a man who ran for office to make his brand great, not to make our country great. he had no desire or intention to lead this nation, only to market

himself and to build his wealth and power. mr. trump would often say, this campaign was going to be the greatest infomercial in political history. he never expected to win the primary. he never expected to win the general election. the campaign for him was always a marketing opportunity. i knew early on in my work for mr. trump that he would direct me to lie to further his business interests. and i am ashamed to say that when it was for a real estate mogul in the private sector, i considered it trivial. as the president, i consider it significant and dangerous. but in the mix lying for mr. trump was normalized and no one around him questioned it. in fairness, no one around him today questions it, either.

a lot of people have asked me about whether mr. trump knew about the release of the hacked documents, the democratic national committee e-mail ahead of time and the answer is yes. as i earlier stated, mr. trump knew from roger stone in advance about the wikileaks drop of e-mails. in july of 2016 days before the democratic convention i was in mr. trump's office when his secretary announced that roger stone was on the phone. mr. trump put mr. stone on the speakerphone. mr. stone told mr. trump that he had just gotten off the phone with julian assange and that mr. assange told mr. stone that within a couple of days there would be a massive dump of e-mails that would damage hillary clinton's campaign. mr. trump responded by stating

to the effect wouldn't that be great. mr. trump is a racist. the country has seen mr. trump court white supremacists and bigots. you have heard her call poorer done trees shitholes, in private he is even worse. he once asked me if i can name a country run by a black person that wasn't a shithole. this was when barack obama was president of the united states. and while we were once driving through a struggling neighborhood in chicago he commented that only black people could live that way, and he told me that black people would never vote for him because they were too stupid. and yet, i continued to work for him. mr. trump is a cheat.

as previously stated, i am giving to the committee today three years of mr. trump's personal financial statements from 2011, 2012 and 2013, which he gave to deutch bank to inquire about a loan to buy the buffalo bills and to forbes. these are exhibits 1a, 1b and 1c to my testimony. it was my experience that mr. trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed amongst the wealthiest people in forbes and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes. i'm sharing with you two newspaper articles side-by-side that are examples of mr. trump inflating and deflating his assets, as i said, to suit his financial interests. these are exhibit 2 to my

testimony. as i noted, i'm giving the committee today an article he wrote on and sent to me that reported on an auction of a portrait of mr. trump. this is exhibit 3a to my testimony. mr. trump directed me to find a straw bidder to purchase a portrait of him that was being auctioned off at an art hamptons event. the objective was to ensure that this portrait which was going to be auctioned last would go for the highest price of any portrait that afternoon. the portrait was purchased by the fake bidder for $60,000. mr. trump directed the trump foundation, which is supposed to be a charitable organization, to repay the fake bidder, despite keeping the art for himself. and please see exhibit 3b to my

testimony. and it should come as no surprise that one of my more common responsibilities was that mr. trump directed me to call business owners, many of whom are small businesses, that were owed money for their services and told them that no payment or a reduced payment would be coming. when i asked mr. trump -- or when i told mr. trump of my success, he actually reveled in it. and yet i continue to work for him. mr. trump is a con man. he asked me to pay off an adult film star with whom he had an affair and to lie about it to his wife, which i did. and lying to the first lady is one of my biggest regrets because she is a kind, good person, and i respect her greatly, and she did not deserve that.

i am giving the committee today a copy of the $130,000 wire transfer from me to ms. clifford's attorney during the closing days of the presidential campaign that was demanded by ms. clifford to maintain her silence about her affair with mr. trump. and this is exhibit 4 to my testimony. mr. trump directed me to use my own personal funds from a home equity line of credit to avoid any money being traced back to him that could negatively impact his campaign, and i did that, too, without bothering to consider whether that was improper, much less weathhether was the right thing to do or how it would impact me, my family or the public. and i am going to jail in part because of my decision to help

mr. trump hide that payment from the american people before they voted a few days later. as exhibit 5a to my testimony shows, i am providing a copy of a $35,000 check that president trump personally signed from his personal bank account on august 1st, 2017. when he was president of the united states. pursuant to the cover up which was the basis of my guilty plea to reimburse me, the word used by mr. trump's tv lawyer for the illegal hush money i paid on his behalf. this $35,000 check was one of 11 check-in stall mts that was paid throughout the year while he was president. other checks to reimburse me for the hush money payments were signed by donald trump jr. and

allen weisselberg. see for that example 5b. the president of the united states thus wrote a personal check for the payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws, and you can find the details of that scheme directed by mr. trump in the pleadings in the u.s. district court for the southern district of new york. so picture this scene, in february of 2017, one month into his presidency, i'm visiting president trump in the oval office for the first time and it's truly awe inspiring. he's showing me all around and pointing to different paintings, and he says to me something to the effect of, don't worry, michael, your january and february reimbursement checks

are coming. they were fed-ex'd from new york and it takes a while for that to get through the white house system. as he promised, i received the first check for the reimbursement of $70,000 not long thereafter. when i say con man, i'm talking about a man who declares himself brilliant, but directed me to threaten his high school, his colleges and the college board to never release his grades or s.a.t. scores. as i mentioned, i'm giving the committee today copies of a letter i sent at mr. trump's direction threatening these schools with civil and criminal actions if mr. trump's grades or s.a.t. scores were ever disclosed without his permission. and these are under exhibit 6. the irony wasn't lost on me at

the time that mr. trump in 2011 had strongly criticized president obama for not releasing his grades. as you can see in exhibit 7, mr. trump declared, let him show his records, after calling president obama a terrible student. the sad fact is that i never heard mr. trump say anything in private that led me to believe he loved our nation or wanted to make it better. in fact, he did the opposite. when telling me in 2008 or 2009 that he was cutting employees salaries in half, including mine, he showed me what he claims was a $10 million irs tax refund and he said that he could not believe how stupid the government was for giving someone like him that much money back.

during the campaign mr. trump said that he did not consider vietnam veteran and prisoner of war, senator john mccain, to be a hero because he likes people who weren't captured. at the same time mr. trump tasked me to handle the negative press surrounding his medical deferment from the vietnam draft. mr. trump claimed it was because of a bone spur, but when i asked for medical records, he gave me none. and said that there was no surgery. he told me not to answer the specific questions by reporters, but rather offer simply the fact that he received a medical deferment. he finished the conversation with the following comment, do you think i'm stupid? i'm not going to vietnam. and i find it ironic, mr. president, that you are in vietnam right now.

and yet i continued to work for him. questions have been raised about whether i know of direct evidence that mr. trump or his campaign excluded with russia. i do not. and i want to be clear. but i have my suspicions. sometime in the summer of 2017 i read all over the media that there had been a meeting in trump tower in june of 2016 involving don jr. and others from the campaign with russians, including a representative of the russian government, and an e-mail setting up the meeting with the subject line "dirt on hillary clinton." something clicked in my mind. i remembered being in a room with mr. trump probably in early june of 2016 when something peculiar happened. don trump jr. came into the room

and walked behind his father's desk, which in and of itself was unusual. people didn't just walk behind mr. trump's desk to talk to him. and i recall don jr. leaning over to his father and speaking in a low voice, which i could clearly hear, and saying, the meeting is all set. and i remember mr. trump saying, okay, good. let me know. what struck me as i look back and thought about the exchange between don jr. and his father, was first, that mr. trump had frequently told me and others that his son don jr. had the worst judgment of anyone in the world. and also that don jr. would never set up any meeting of significance alone, and certainly not without checking with his father. i also knew that nothing went on

in trump world, especially the campaign, without mr. trump's knowledge and approval. so i concluded that don jr. was referring to that june 2016 trump tower meeting about dirt on hillary with the russian representatives when he walked behind his dad's desk that day, and that mr. trump knew that was the meeting don jr. was talking about when he said, that's good. let me know. over the past year or so i have done some real soul searching and i see now that my ambition and the intoxication of trump power had much to do with the bad decisions in part that i made, and to you, chairman cummings and ranking member jordan and the other members of this committee, the members of the house and senate, i am sorry for my lies and for lying to

congress, and to our nation, i am sorry for actively working to hide from you the truth about mr. trump when you needed it most. for those who question my motives for being here today, i understand. i have lied, but i am not a liar. and i have done bad things, but i am not a bad man. i have fixed things, but i am no longer your fixer, mr. trump. i am going to prison and have shattered the safety and security that i tried so hard to provide for my family. my testimony certainly does not diminish the pain that i have caused my family and my friends. nothing can do that. and i have never asked for nor would i accept a pardon from president trump. and by coming today, i have

caused my family to be the target of personal, skewer laos attacks by the president and his lawyer trying to intimidate me from appearing before this panel. mr. trump called me a rat for choosing to tell the truth, much like a mobster would do when one of his men decides to cooperate with the government. as exhibit 8 shows, i have provided the committee with copies of tweets that mr. trump posted, attacking me and my family. and only someone burying his head in the sand would not recognize them for what they are. it's encouragement to someone to do harm to me and my family. i never imagined that he would engage in vicious, false attacks on my family and unleash his tv lawyer to do the same, and i hope this committee and all

members of congress on both sides of the aisle make it clear that as a nation we should not tolerate attempts to intimidate witnesses before congress and attacks on family are out of bounds and not acceptable. i wish to especially thank speaker pelosi for her statements. that's exhibit 9. to protect this institution and me. and the chairman of the house permanent select committee on intelligence, adam schiff. and you, chairman cummings, for like wise defending the institution and my family against the attacks by mr. trump and also the many republicans who have admonished the president as well. i am not a perfect man. i have done things i am not proud of and i will live with the consequences of my actions for the rest of my life.

but today i get to decide the example that i set for my children and how i attempt to change how history will remember me. i may not be able to change the past, but i can do right by the american people here today. and i thank you for your attention and i'm happy to answer the committee's questions. >> mr. cohen, before i start, i want to make sure you really understand something. you have admitted lying to congress, to this very body, and now you are going to prison for it. do you, mr. cohen, recognize the gravity of your offenses? you are a lawyer, right? >> as of yesterday, i am no longer a lawyer. i have lost my law license, amongst other things. >> but you understand the gravity of this moment? >> i most certainly do, mr. chairman. >> i want you to really hear

this, mr. cohen. we will not tolerate lying to this congress. by anybody. we are in search of the truth. do you understand that? >> i do. >> now, the president has also made numerous statements that turned out to be inaccurate. for example, he said he knew nothing about the hush money payments to ms. clifford. in his 2017 financial disclosure form he said he never owed money to reimburse you for those payments. yet in your testimony, mr. cohen, you said that you met with the president in the oval office in february of 2017 and discussed his plans to reimburse you for money you paid. you say he told you, and i quote, don't worry, michael,

your january and february reimbursement checks are coming. is that accurate? and was that in the oval office? >> the statement is accurate, but the discussions regarding the reimbursement occurred long before he became president. >> would you explain that? >> back in 2017 when -- actually, i apologize -- in 2016, prior to the election, i was contacted by keith davidson who is the attorney -- or was the attorney for ms. clifford, for stormy daniels. and after several rounds of conversations with him about purchasing her life rights for $130,000, what i did each and

every time is go straight into mr. trump's office and discuss the issue with him. when it was ultimately determined -- and this was days before the election -- that mr. trump was going to pay the $130,000, in the office with me was allen weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the trump organization. he acknowledged to allen that he was going to pay the $130,000 and that allen and i should go back to his office and figure out how to do it. so, yes, sir, i stand by the statement that i gave, but there was a history to it. >> in your testimony you said you bought some checks, is that right? you said you bought some checks. >> yes, sir. >> let me ask you about one of these. this from the trump trust that

holds the president's businesses, can you tell me who signed this check? >> i believe that the top signature is donald trump jr. and the bottom signature i believe is allen weisselberg's. >> and can you tell me the date of that check? >> march 17th of 2017. >> wait a minute. hold up. the date on the check is after president trump held his big press conference claiming that he gave up control of his businesses. how could the president have arranged for you to get this check if he was supposedly playing no role in his business? >> because the payments were designed to be paid over the course of 12 months and it was declared to be a retainer for

services that would be provided for the year of 2017. >> was there a retainer agreement? >> there is no retainer agreement. >> would don jr. or mr. weisselberg have more information about that? >> mr. weisselberg for sure about the entire discussions and negotiations prior to the election, and don jr. would have cursory information. >> now, here is another one. this one appears to be signed by donald trump himself. is that his signature? >> that is donald trump's signature. >> so let me make sure i understand. donald trump wrote you a check out of his personal account while he was serving as president of the united states of america to reimburse you for hush money payments to ms. clifford, is that what you are telling the american people

today? >> yes, mr. chairman. >> one final question. the president claimed he knew nothing about these payments. his ethics filing said he owed nothing to you. based on your conversations with him is there any doubt in your mind that president trump knew exactly what he was paying for? >> there is no doubt in my mind, and i truly believe there is no doubt in the mind of the people of the united states of america. >> and these new documents appear to corroborate what you just told us. with that i will yield to the gentleman [ inaudible ]. >> i will make sure that you and i meet one day while we are in the courthouse and i will take you for every penny you still don't have and i will come after you on daily beast and everybody else that you possibly know. so i'm warning you, tread very

f'ing lightly because what i'm going to do to you is going to be f'ing disgusting. do you understand me? mr. cohen, who said that? >> i did. >> and did you say that, mr. cohen, in your testimony on page 2, you said you did things for mr. trump in an effort to protect him. was that statement that i just read that you admitted to saying, did you do that to protect donald trump? >> i did it to protect mr. trump, donald trump jr., ivanka trump and eric trump. >> and in your sentencing statement back in december in front of the judge you said this, mr. cohen, my weakness can be characterized as a blind loyalty to donald trump, a blind loyalty that led me to choose a path of darkness. is that accurate, mr. cohen? >> i wrote that. >> you wrote that and said that in front of the judge, that is correct. >> that's correct. >> let me read a few other things and let me ask you why you did some of these things. when you filed a false tax

return in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, was all that out of blind loyalty to the president? >> no, it was not. >> when you failed to report $4 million in income to the internal revenue service, did you do that to protect donald trump? >> no, i did not. >> and when you failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes, i've got constituents who don't make that in a lifetime -- when you failed to pay $1.4 million in taxes to the u.s. treasury was that out of some blind loyalty to the president of the united states? >> it was not, but the number was 1.38 and change and i have paid that money back to the irs at this time. >> i think the american people will appreciate that 1.3 -- >> i also would like to say it was over a course of five years, approximately $260,000 a year. >> that's what i said, 2013,

2012, 2014, 2015, that's five years. >> yes. >> got it. when you made false statements to financial institutions concerning a home exit wit line of credit, taxi medallions and your park avenue apartment in 2013, 2014 and 2015 and you pled guilty to making those false statements to those banks, was that all done to protect the president? >> no, it was not. >> how about this one, when you created the fake twitter account women for cohen and paid a firm to post tweets like this one, in a world of lies, deception and fraud, we appreciate this honest guy, @michaelcohen, #tgif, # handsome, #sexy. was that done to protect the president? >> mr. jordan, i didn't actually set that up, it was done by a young lady that worked for red finch. during the course of the campaign which you would know it's somewhat crazy and filed.

we were having fun. that's what it was, sir, we were having fun. >> was it done to protect the president? >> that was not done to protect the president. >> was it a fake twitter account. >> no, it was a real twitter account. >> did you pay a firm to create -- >> i didn't pay a firm to do that, it was done by a young lady that works for the firm and, again, we were having fun during a stressful time. >> did you lie to protect the president or did you lie to protect yourself? >> i'm not sure that helped me, sir. >> i'm not sure it did, either. >> more than half a people on that site are men. >> the chairman gave you a 30 minute opening statement and you have a history of lying over and over and over again and frankly don't take my word for it, take what the court said. take what the southern district of new york said. cohen did crimes that were marked by a pattern of deception and that permeated his professional life.

these crimes were distinct in their harms but bear a common set of circumstances, they each involved deception and were each -- each motivated by personal greed and ambition. a pattern of deception for personal greed and ambition and you just got 30 minutes of an opening statement where you trashed the president of the united states of america. mr. cohen, how long did -- how long did you work for donald trump? >> approximately a decade. >> ten years? >> that's correct. >> and you said all these bad things about the president there in that last 30 minutes and yet you worked for him for ten years? all those bad things -- i mean, if it's that bad i can see you working for him for ten days, maybe ten weeks, maybe even ten months, but you worked for him for ten years. mr. cohen, how long did you -- how long did you work in the white house? >> i never worked in the white house. >> and that's the point, isn't it, mr. cohen. >> no, sir. >> yes, it is. >> no, it's not.

>> you wanted to work in the white house. >> no, sir. >> you didn't get brought to you dance and now -- >> i was extremely proud to be personal attorney to the president of the united states of america. i did not want to go to the white house. i was offered jobs. i can tell you a story of mr. trump reaming out reince priebus because i had not taken a job where mr. trump wanted me to, which is working with don mcgahn at the white house general counsel's office. >> mr. cohen, you worked for the president -- >> sir, one second. what i said at the time and i brought a lawyer in who produced a memo as to why i should not go in because there would be no attorney/client privilege and in order to handle -- >> mr. cohen -- >> -- some of the matters that i talked about in my opening, that it would be best suited for me not to go in and that every president had a personal attorney. >> here is what i see. i see a guy that worked for ten years and is here trashing the guy he worked for for ten years, didn't get a job in the white

house and now -- and now you're behaving just like everyone else who got fired or didn't get the job they wanted, like andy mccabe, like james comey, same kind of selfish motivation after you don't get the thing you want, that's what i see here today and i think that's what the american people see. >> mr. jordan, all i wanted was what i got, to be personal attorney to the president. to enjoy the senior year of my son in high school and waiting for my daughter who is graduating from college to come back to new york. i got exactly what i want. >> exactly what you want? >> what i wanted. >> you're going to prison. >> i received exactly what i wanted. >> the gentleman's time has expired. ms. wasserman schultz. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. cohen, thank you for being here today. as you likely know i served as the chair of the democratic national committee at the time of the russian hacks and when russia weaponized the messages that it had stolen, but i want to be clear, my questions are

not about the harm done to any individual, by wikileaks and the russians, it's about the possible and likely harm to the united states of america and our democracy. i have a series of questions that i hope will connect more of these dots. mr. cohen, is it your testimony that mr. trump had advanced knowledge of the russia wikileaks release of the dnc's e-mails? sn>> i can't -- i cannot answer that in a yes or no. he had advanced notice that there was going to be a dump of e-mails, but at no time did i hear the specificity of what those e-mails were going to be. >> but you do testify today that he had advanced knowledge of their -- of their imminent release? >> that is what i had stated in my testimony. >> and that he cheered that outcome? >> yes, ma'am. >> did mr. trump likely share this information with his daughter ivanka, son don jr. or jared kushner?

>> i'm not aware of that. >> was ivanka, jared or don jr. still involved in the russia tower deal at that time? >> the company was involved in the deal, which meant that the family was involved in the deal. >> if mr. trump and his daughter ivanka and donald jr. are involved in the russia trump tower deal is it possible that the family is conflicted or compromise wd a foreign adversary in the months before the election? >> yes. >> based on your experience with the president and knowledge of his relationship with mr. stone, do you have reason to believe that the president explicitly or implicitly authorized mr. stone to make contact with wikileaks and to indicate the campaign's interest in the strategic release of these illegally hacked materials? >> i'm not aware of that. >> was mr. stone a free agent reporting back to the president what he had done or was he an agent of the campaign acting on behalf of the president and with his apparent authority? >> no, he was a free agent.

>> a free agent that was reporting back to the president what he had done. >> correct. he frequently reached out to mr. trump and mr. trump was very happy to take his calls. it was free service. >> roger stone says he never spoke with mr. trump about wikileaks. how can we corroborate what you are saying? >> i don't know, but i suspect that the special counsel's office and other government agencies have the information that you're seeking. >> moving on to a little later in 2016, a major wikileaks dump happens hours after the "access hollywood" tape is released. do you believe or are you aware of mr. trump coordinating or signaling for this e-mail dump? >> i am unaware of that. i actually was not even in the country at the time of the billy bush tape. i was in london visiting my daughter. >> knowing how mr. trump operates with his winning at all

costs mentality, do you believe that he would cooperate or exclude with a foreign power to win the presidency? is he capable of that? >> it calls on so much speculation, ma'am, it would be unfair for me to give an answer to that. >> but you have a tremendous amount of experience -- >> mr. trump is all about winning. he will do what is necessary to win. >> and in your opinion and experience would he have the potential to cooperate or collude with a foreign power to win the presidency at all costs? >> yes. >> based on what you know would mr. trump or did he lie about colluding and coordinating with the russians at any point during the campaign? >> so as i stated in my testimony, i wouldn't use the word colluding.

was there something odd about the back and forth praise with president putin? yes. but i'm not really sure that i can answer that question in terms of collusion. i was not part of the campaign, i don't know the other conversations that mr. trump had with other individuals. there's just so many dots that all seem to lead to the same direction. >> finally before my time expires, mr. cohen, the campaign and the entire trump organization appeared to be filthy with russian contact. there are russian business contacts, there are campaign russian contacts, there are lies about all of those contacts and then we have roger stone informing the president just before the democratic national convention that wikileaks was

going to drop documents in the public arena that we knew at that point were hacked and stolen by russia from the democratic national committee -- >> the gentle lady's time has expired. you may answer her inquiry. >> my question is -- >> quickly. >> given all those connections, is it likely that donald trump was fully aware and had every intent of working with russia to help make sure that he could win the presidency at all costs? >> so let me say that this is a matter that's currently being handled by the house select and the senate select intelligence committees. i would rather not answer that specific question other than just to tell you that mr. trump's desire to win would have him work with anyone. and one other thing that i had said in my statement, is that when it came to the trump tower

moscow project, it was worth hundreds of millions of dollars and we never expected to win the election. so this was just business as usual. >> thank you, mr. cohen. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. ranking member jordan. the chairman and this committee have promised members of the american people a fair and open process, yet the democrats have vastly limited the scope of this hearing, they've issued a gag order to try to tell members of this committee what we can and cannot talk about. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle claim that they want the truth, that they want transparency and fair oversight yet the democrats witnessed to testify before congress today is none other than a skournd man who is going to prison for lying to congress. let that sink in. he's going to prison for lying to congress and he is the star witness to congress. if you read the sentencing report on mr. cohen, words like

deceptive and greedy are scattered throughout that report. it paints a picture of a narcissist, a bully who cannot tell the truth whether it's about the president or about his own personal life, but today he's the majority party's star witness. if the democrats were after the truth, they would have an honest person here testifying. and if they were really after the truth, they would not restrict the questioning to just a few top picks. but let's take a look at those restricted topics. martin luther king, the first topic in your limited scope that i can ask mr. cohen is about the president's debts, but, mr. chairman, didn't mr. cohen plead guilty to lying to banks about his personal finances? so we're asking a guy going to jail for lying about his debts to comment about the president's debts. he's the expert. mr. chairman, your next couple topics say that i can ask mr.

cohen about the president's compliance with financial disclosures and campaign finance laws, but didn't mr. cohen on two occasions break campaign finance law with his own donations? so, again, the majority party's star witness on the president's compliance is a guy who broke compliance laws himself. mr. chairman, you graciously allow us to ask questions of mr. cohen on the president's dealings with the irs and tax law. your star witness here broke the law with regards to the irs at least five times. he pled guilty on cheating on his taxes, lying to the irs, he's the best witness you got? next up, with the permission of the chairman, i get to ask mr. cohen about his prospective on the president's business dealings. let me get this straight, the witness lied to multiple financial institutions to get loans to pay off other loans just to keep himself afloat and he's going to be the expert on business practices.

obviously, mr. chairman, the witness might produce documents that he suggests incriminates the president, yet he lies to banks, all of those lies were done on fraudulent documents. documents that he forged. nothing he says or produces has any credibility. apparently he even lied about delivering his own child which his wife had to correct the record of. ladies and gentlemen, how often earth is this witness credible? with all the lies and deception the self-serving fraud, it begs the question, what is the majority party doing here? no one can see this guy as credible. he will say whatever he wants to accomplish his own personal goals. he's a fake witness and his presence here is a travesty. i hope the american people see through this. i know the people back in tennessee will. and with that statement, sir, i have a few questions of the

witness. with your loss of your law license, i think you mentioned in your opening statement that you had been disbarred, what is your source of income in the future? >> i don't expect i'm going to have a source of income when i'm in federal penitentiary. >> what -- is there a book deal coming or anything like that? >> i have no book deal right now in the process. i have been contacted by many, including for television, a movie, if you want to tell me who you would like to play you i'm more than happy to write the name down. >> i'm sure there's a very attractive man -- >> i'd also like to correct your statement on me. >> let me ask one other question, though, i only have a limited amount of time. one quick question. who paid your expenses to be here today? >> who has paid my expenses? >> to be here today. >> i paid my expenses. >> mr. chairman, i'd like to yield the remaining of my time to the ranking member. >> mr. cohen, how many times did you talk to the special

counsel's office? >> seven. >> did they talk to you at all in preparation for today's hearing between the seven times you talked to them prior to your sentencing, have you had any conversations with the special counsel's office between sentencing and today? >> i'm sorry, i don't understand your question. >> you talked to them seven times, that's in the sentencing memorandums that were in front of the court back in december. what i'm asking is how many times have you talked to the special counsel's office since then up to today's appearance here in congress. >> the gentleman's time has expired. you may answer the question, though, that one question. >> i'm sorry, i don't have the answer to that. >> mr. ms. maloney. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. cohen, in your ten years of working for donald trump did he control everything that went on in the trump organization and did you have to get his permission in advance and report back after every meeting of any importance? >> yes.

>> my -- >> there was -- there was nothing that happened at the trump organization from whether it was a response as the daily beast story that you referred to, ranking member, that did not go through mr. trump with his approval and signoff, as in the case of the payments. >> how many times did the president, michael, ask you or direct you to try to reach settlements with women in 2015 and 2016? >> i'm sorry, ma'am, i don't have the answer to that. i'd have to go back and try to recollect. it's certainly the two that we know about. >> why do you think the president did not provide the accurate information in his 2017 financial disclosure form?

what was he trying to hide? he corrected other forms but he didn't correct this one. >> the payments on the reimbursement of the funds that i extended on his behalf. >> can you elaborate more? >> well, going back into the story, as i stated, when we -- allen weisselberg and i left the office and went to his office in order to make the determination on how the money was going to be wired to the iola, the interest on the lawyer's account for keith davidson in california. i had asked allen to use his money. didn't want to use mine. he said he couldn't and we then decided how else we can do it. he asked me whether or not i know anybody who wants to have a party at one of his clubs that could pay me instead or somebody who may have wanted to become a member of one of the golf clubs, and i also don't have anybody

that was interested in that. and it got to the point where it was down to the wire, it was either we -- somebody wire the funds and purchase the life rights to the story from ms. clifford or it was going to end up being sold to television and that would have embarrassed the president and it would have interfered with the election. >> but the president has never amended his 2017 form to this day and while you're facing the consequences of going to jail he is not. >> well, i believe that they amended a financial disclosure form and there is a footnote somewhere buried, i don't recall specifically what it says, but there is a footnote buried somewhere. >> can you describe, michael, to the american people catch and kill? >> so catch and kill is a method that exists when you're working

with a news outlet, in this specific case it was ami, "national enquirer," david pecker, dylan howard and others, where they would contact me or mr. trump or someone and state that there is a story that's percolating out there that you may be interested in. and then what you do is you contact that individual and you purchase the rights to that story from them. >> and you practiced this for the president? >> i was involved in several of these catch and kill episodes. these catch and kill scenarios existed between david pecker and mr. trump long before i started working for him in 2007. >> michael, can you suggest who else this committee should talk to for additional information on this or anything else? >> yes, i believe david pecker,

dylan howard, barry levine of ami as well, allen weisselberg, alan garten of the trump organization as well. >> thank you very much for your testimony and, mr. chairman, this is a story of redemption. >> thank you, ma'am. >> mr. comer. >> mr. cohen, in your testimony you stated that you began work for the trump organization as a lawyer dealing with real estate transactions. is that correct. >> that's correct. >> prior to coming to congress i served as the director of two different banks and have seen hundreds of loan applications and to try to determine your credibility i wanted to ask you a couple of real estate transaction questions just so see how, in fact, you operate. according to the southern district of new york prosecutors you lied to banks to secure loans by falsely stating the amount of debt you were carrying. mr. cohen, my question to you, was it donald trump's fault that you knowingly committed a crime of deception to defraud a bank?

>> no, it's not. >> was that fraudulent loan you obtained for the trump organization or for you personally? >> it would be for me, though i'm not familiar with which loan that you're referring to. i will -- i would like to say one thing. >> mr. cohen -- >> i would like just to respond. >> the loan -- >> when we're talking about the home equity lined of credit which is what i believe you're referring to -- >> we're also -- i'm going to ask a question pertaining to your summer home that you purchased, too. >> i never purchased a summer home. no individual or no bank in the 22 years that i've had loans have ever lost a dollar with me. i owe no money to any bank. >> well, the banks usually find out if someone is trying to deceive them. >> in 22 years -- >> mr. cohen. >> -- or any bank. >> mr. cohen, did your so-called blind loyalty to the president cause you to defraud the bank for your own personal bank.

>> sir, i take exception to that because there has never been a fraud -- i never defrauded any bank. >> let's dig a little deeper on that, on the bank fraud. according to the southern district of new york you failed to disclose more than $20 million in liabilities as well as tens of thousands of dollars of monthly expenses. that's according to the southern district of new york. now, mr. cohen, you being a lawyer, surely you knew you were breaking the law. why would you have done that? >> sir, i'm not a cpa and i pled guilty. i'm going to prison as a result of it. >> because you are a con? >> no, sir. because i pled guilty and i am going to be doing the time. i have caused tremendous, tremendous pain to my family and i take no happiness in the -- >> one last question about the bank. when the bank found out about the liabilities that you failed to disclose, you lied again to the bank, this is according to the southern district of new york, and said it had been

expunged when, in fact, you just shifted the debt to another bank. so apparently according to the information that we received, your intent to defraud the bank was for the desire to purchase the summer home for $8.5 million. >> no, sir. >> that's not correct. >> that would have been off of an equity line, considering i had less than a 50% loan to value on the assets and there was a preexisting line of credit that existed years before the date that you're referring to where this is all surrounding new york city taxi medallions. >> but you understand that when you failed to disclose liabilities, especially $20 million in liabilities, that is, in fact, fraud. >> except even with the $20 million in liabilities -- >> how much was it? >> the medallions were at that time worth over $45 million. >> mr. cohen, you called donald

trump a cheat in your opening testimony. what would you call yourself? >> a fool. >> you calling -- okay. well, no comment on that. >> i appreciate that. >> mr. chairman, we said we were in search of the truth. i don't believe that michael cohen is capable of telling the truth and i would hope that as this committee moves forward that when we have the opportunity to subpoena witnesses we subpoena witnesses that are not recently disbarred, are not convicted felons and witnesses that haven't committed bank fraud and tax fraud. that is how we're going to determine the truth. so, mr. chairman, i yield the balance of my time to the ranking member. >> i would just make one point. we just had a five-minute debate where mr. cohen disputes what the southern district of new york found what the judge found that he was guilty of committing bank fraud. if this statement doesn't say it all. cohen's consciousness of

wrongdoing is fleeting, his remorse is minimal, his instinct is to blame others is strong. there's only one thing wrong with that statement, his remorse is nonexistent. he just debated a member of congress saying i really didn't do anything wrong with the false bank things that i'm guilty of and going to prison for. >> that's not what i said and you know that that's not what i said. >> will the gentleman field yahoo eld? >> i pled guilty and i take responsibility for my actions. >> the gentleman's time has expired. >> shame on you, mr. jordan. that's not what i said. shame on you. >> mr. chairman -- >> that's not what i said. what i said is i took responsibility and i take responsibility. what i was doing is explaining to the gentleman that his facts are inaccurate. i still -- i take responsibility for my mistakes. all right. i am remorseful and i am going to prison. i will be away from my wife and family for years. so before you turn around --

>> i understand that. >> please understand there are people watching you today that know me a whole lot better. i made mistakes. i own them and i didn't fight with the southern district of new york. i didn't put the system through an entire scenario, but what i did do is i pled guilty and i am going to be, again, going to prison. >> mr. norton. >> mr. cohen, at the center of the reasons you're going to prison is conviction for campaign finance violations and they center around some salacious revelations. the "washington post" report reported -- or aired an "access hollywood" video. it set a record for the number

of people who watched, crashed the newspaper's server, but this happened in early october on the cusp of the election. what was mr. trump's reaction to the video becoming public at that time and was he concerned about the impact of that video on the election? >> the answer is yes. as i stated before, i was in london at the time visiting my daughter who was studying there for a washington semester abroad. i received a phone call during the dinner from hope hicks stating that she had just spoken to mr. trump and we need you to start making phone calls to the various different news outlets that you have relationships with, and we need to spin this.

what we want to do is just to claim that this was men locker room talk. >> was the concern about the election in particular? >> the answer is yes. then couple that with karen mcdougal, which then came out around the same time, and then on top of that the stormy daniels matter. >> yeah, and these things happened in the month before the election and almost one after the other. the stormy daniels revelation where prosecutors and officials -- prosecutors learned of that -- of that matter and prosecutors stated that the officials at the magazine contacted you about the story, and the magazine, of course, is

the "national enquirer." is that correct, is that they did? >> yes, ma'am. >> come to you. were you concerned about this news story becoming public right after the "access hollywood" study in terms of impact on the election? >> i was concerned about it, but more importantly mr. trump was concerned about it. >> that was my next question. what was the president's concern about these matters becoming public in october as we were about to go into an election? >> i don't think anybody would dispute this build he haelief t the wildfire that encompassed the billy bush tape that a second follow-up to it would have been pleasant, and he was concerned with the affect that

it had had on the campaign, on how women were seeing him and ultimately whether or not he would have a shot in the general election. >> and so you negotiated the $130,000 payment. >> the $130,000 number was not a number that was actually negotiated. it was told to me by keith davidson that this is a number that ms. clifford wanted. >> you finally completed that deal, as it were, on october the 25th, days before the election. what happened in the interim? >> contemplated whether or not to do it. wasn't sure if she was really going to go public. there was, again, some communications back and forth between myself and keith davidson. and ultimately it came to either do it or don't, at which time,

again, i had gone into mr. trump's office as i did after each and every conversation and he had told me that he had spoken to a couple of friends and it's $130,000, it's not a lot of money. and we should just do it. so go ahead and do it. and i was at the time with allen weisselberg, where he directed us to go back to mr. weisselberg's office and figure this all out. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> mr. betos. >> mr. cohen, do you know lynn patton? i'm right here >> yes, sir. >> do you know lynn patton? >> yes, i do. >> i asked lynn to come today in her personal capacity to actually shed some light. how do you know miss patton. >> i'm responsible for miss patton joining the trump administration and the job she holds. >> i'm glad you acknowledged that, because you made some very demeaning comments about the

president that miss patton doesn't agree with. in fact, it has to do with your claim of racism. she says that as a daughter of a man born in birmingham, alabama, that there is no way that she would work for an individual who was racist. how do you reconcile the two of those? >> as neither should i, as the son of a holocaust survivor. >> but, mr. cohen, i guess what i'm saying is, i've talked to the president over 300 times. i've not heard one time a racist comment out of his mouth in private. so how do you reconcile it? do you have proof of those conversations? >> i would ask you to -- >> do you have tape recordings of those conversations? >> no, sir. >> well, you've taped everybody else. >> that's also not true, sir. that's not true. >> you haven't taped anybody? >> i have taped individuals. >> how many times have you taped individuals? >> maybe 100 times over ten years. >> is that a low estimate?

because i've heard it's over 200 times? >> no, i think it's approximately 100, from what i recall. you asked me a question, sir. >> do you have proof, yes or no -- >> i do. >> where is the proof? >> ask miss patton how many people who are black are executives at the trump organization. the answer is zero. >> mr. cohen, we can go through this. i would ask unanimous consent that her entire statement be put in the record. >> without objection. >> all right. let me go on a little bit further. did you collect $1.2 million or so from novartis. >> i did. >> for access to the trump administration? >> no, sir. >> why did you collect it? >> because they came to me based upon my knowledge of the enigma, donald trump, what he thinks -- >> so -- >> sir, please let me finish. >> no. did they pay you $1.2 million -- >> we've already said this --

>> for advice? >> yes, they did. a multibillion dollar conglomerate came to me looking for information, not something that's unusual here in d.c., looking for information, and they believe i had a value. >> so how many times -- >> value was the insight that i was capable of offering them. >> how many times -- >> and they were willing to pay. >> how many times did you meet with them? for $1.2 million, how many times did you meet with them? >> i provided them with both in-person as well as telephone access whenever they needed it. >> how many times -- that's a question, mr. cohen. >> i don't recall, sir. >> so did you ever talk to them? >> i spoke to them on several occasions, yes. >> how many? >> six times. >> six times. wow. $200,000 a call. >> sir, i also would like to -- >> hold on. >> i would like to bring your attention the contract. >> this is my time, not yours. did you get money from the bank of kazakhstan? >> it's not a bank of kazakhstan. it's called bta. >> bta bank.

did you get money from them? >> i did. >> for what purpose? >> the purpose was because the former ceo of that bank had obje absconded with over 4 to $6 billion. and some of the money was here in the united states and they sought my assistance in terms of finding -- locating that money and helping them to recollect it. >> so are you saying that all of the reports that you were paid in some estimates over $4 million to have access and understanding of the trump administration, you're saying all of that was just paid to you just because you're a nice guy. >> well, i am a nice guy. but more importantly -- >> i would beg to differ. the record reflects that you're not a nice guy. >> sir, each and every contract contained the clause in my contracts that said i will not lobby, and i do not do government relations work. in fact -- in fact, novartis sent me their contract, which stated specifically that they wanted me to lobby, that they wanted me to provide access to

government, including the president. that information, that paragraph, was crossed out by me, initialed and written in my own handwriting. it says, i will not lobby or do government relations work. >> so novartis representatives say that it was like they were hiring a nonregistered lobbyist, so you disagree with that? >> i don't know what they said, sir. but the contract speaks for itself. >> have you ever contacted anybody in the administration? >> yes. >> to advocate on behalf of any aspect of any of your contracts? i ask unanimous consent, mr. chairman. i ask unanimous -- [ banging gavel ] the gentleman's time has expired. you may answer the question. >> i don't know what you're referring to, sir. >> mr. chairman -- >> mr. clay -- >> mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. cohen, i'm pleased you agreed to testify today

voluntarily. in my view, we are all here for just one reason. and that's the american people are tired of being lied to. they have been lied to by president trump, they have been lied to by the president's children, they have been lied to by the president's legal representatives. and it pains me to say that they have been even lied to by his congressional enablers who are still devoted to perpetuating and protecting this giant con game on the american people. now, mr. cohen, i'd like to talk to you about the president's assets. since, by law, these must be reported accurately on its federal financial disclosure, and when he submits them for a bank loan.

mr. cohen, you served for nearly a decade as then businessman trump's personal attorney and so-called fixer. did you also have an understanding of the president's assets and how he valued those items? >> yes. >> in november of 2017, crane's new york business reported that the trump organization provided, quote, flagrantly untrue revenue figures going back to at least 2010 to influence crane's ranking of the largest private companies in new york. according to the reports, while the trump organization reported nearly $9.5 billion in revenues in 2016, public filings suggest that revenues were actually less than one tenth of that. to your knowledge, did the president or his company ever

inflate assets or revenues? >> yes. >> and was that done with the president's knowledge or direction? >> everything was done with the knowledge and at the direction of mr. trump. >> tell us why he would do that and what purpose did it serve. >> it depends upon the situation. there were times that i was asked, again, with allen weisselberg, the cfo, to go back and to speak with an individual from forbes, because mr. trump wanted each year to have his net worth rise on the forbes wealthiest individuals list. and so what you do is you look at the assets and you try to find an asset that has, say, for example, 40 wall street, which is about 1.2 million square feet. find an asset that is

comparable, find the highest price per square foot that's achieved in the area and apply it to that building. or if you're going off of your rank roll, go by the gross rent roll, times a multiple, and you make up the multiple, which is something that he had talked about. and it's based upon what he wanted to value the asset at. >> you know, you have provided this committee with copies of the president's financial statements or parts of them from 2011, 2012 and '13. and mr. chairman, i would like to submit those for the record. mr. chairman, i would like to submit the statements to the record. >> without objection, so ordered. >> thank you. can you explain why you had these financial statements and what you used them for? >> so these financial statements were used by me for two purposes. one was discussing with